I agree with the last several criticisms. I wanted the Dwarves to be like the LOTR Dwarves. They got Thorin's age way wrong (indeed, Balin is younger than Thorin). I don't get why they altered the Azog/Bolg element. And I've been pissed since Fellowship that Glamdring and Orcrist don't glow. It would have stood fine, or better, as it was. Some of the padding was appreciated -- like the storm giants -- but other padding was extraneous to the point of boring (Bilbo's waaaaay extended conversation with Smaug, the gold statue, Dwarves fighting Smaug, the very dramatic escape down the river, Super Mario Legolas, were-worms, and so on and so on...).
Some of the intercuts didn't really work either. I think a better pacing would have been:
-End the first film with them getting captured by the Wood-Elves.
-Have the second pick up with Gandalf leaving them at the edge of Mirkwood and the whole Dol Goldur storyline, ending with him hastening back to rejoin the Company and seeing the Orcs marching on Erebor.
-Then the third being the escape from the Wood-Elves, flushing of Smaug, and Battle of Five Armies. It's not that much, content-wise, if you trim much of the padding del Toro and PJ put in that was not drawn from the ancillary works (mainly the LotR Appendices).
Alternatively, flip the latter two, so we pick up the third film right as Gandalf appears to the three armies that are about to converge, after his warning Bilbo asks him where he was for so long, then flash back to him leaving them at the entrance of Mirkwood and tie the ending up a bit better to have him leaving to warn the Company about the Orcs and Saruman leaving to run Sauron to ground. From there the story picks up in Fellowship of the Ring.
In all honesty, though, I think the perfect approach would have been to bring it back as Saturday Morning cinema serials. There are enough action points and cliffhangers that one could break the whole of Hobbit and LotR into at least a score of one-hour shorts. More, if one wanted to include First Age stuff, with Morgoth and the Goblin Wars of Gondolin and all that. *heh*
--Jonah